144 years of marriage and divorce in the United States, in one chart<\/a>“].<\/p>\nTo divorce and then marry again when the reason for the divorce was not fornication on the part of the spouse is a form of adultery (Matthew 19:9). However, there are times when a Christian might find his marriage ended despite his attempt to hold it together. For example, in I Corinthians 7:12-15 Paul discusses the situation where a Christian is married to a non-believer. It might end up that the unbeliever abandons his marriage. This doesn’t give the Christian a right to marry again, but it also does not imply that the Christian has sinned. The general rule is: “But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband (but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife<\/em>” (I Corinthians 7:10-11). There should not be a divorce, but in the case that one does occur, the Christian is to remain unmarried until reconciliation can take place if it ever does. Because God provides for this situation, while it is not ideal, it cannot be labeled sinful either.<\/p>\nA mistake many make is to read Matthew 19:9 as if it is saying that the only acceptable reason for divorce is fornication. “And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery<\/em>” (Matthew 19:9). Two conditions have to be met for adultery to take place — that is what the word “and” does this in this statement. A person who divorces and remarries commits adultery. An exception is a person who divorces because of fornication and remarries. But notice what is not covered: a person who divorces and does not\u00a0<\/strong>remarry. For that, we have to look at what Paul told stated in I Corinthians 7:10-11. What is interesting is that Paul says the rule he gives is directly derived from what the Lord has said.<\/p>\nBecause I don’t know the background or reasons why any person is divorced, I cannot sit in judgment and say that they cannot serve as a Christian if they are remaining unmarried. For all I know, they are obeying the command of God in a bad situation.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: These days it seems as if many couples, including Christians, do not give their marriages a chance and their marriages end quickly because they are not willing to give up their stubborn ways.\u00a0 My husband and I have been married a long time and went through a lot of struggles, especially our first year…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[167],"class_list":["post-51262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-divorce"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":49490,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-a-marriage-performed-by-a-witch-doctor-legitimate\/","url_meta":{"origin":51262,"position":0},"title":"Is a marriage performed by a witch doctor legitimate?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Here in Africa people go to witch doctors in order to get married, which is a sin. Now can you please tell me if people, who are married by a witch doctor, are allowed to have sex with each other because that for me is a sin? Marriage is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":68180,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-god-honor-all-marriages\/","url_meta":{"origin":51262,"position":1},"title":"Does God honor all marriages?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 22, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good morning, I would like to know if God honors all marriages. I was recently in a study and they brought up Hebrews 13:4. I was told this verse God applies to Christians who are in the church. God does not honor marriages outside of Christ. For example, if\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16197,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-a-sin-to-choose-to-remain-single\/","url_meta":{"origin":51262,"position":2},"title":"Is it a sin to choose to remain single?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 31, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it a sin if a Christian chooses not to get married for his or her whole life? Answer: Getting married has always been an option and never a requirement. The apostle Paul never married and when persecution raised its ugly head on the horizon, he urged other Christians,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66861,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-marriages-really-end-at-death\/","url_meta":{"origin":51262,"position":3},"title":"Do marriages really end at death?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 2, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Marriage vows say, \"Until death, do we part,\" is this the truth? If so, I am so sad about this. I need to understand. Though, I cannot find a definite answer. I know there are things that we are not to know. Also, I understand that I am human.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31637,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-a-christian-becomes-the-second-wife-of-a-muslim-then-would-that-be-acceptable-to-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":51262,"position":4},"title":"If a Christian becomes the second wife of a Muslim, then would that be acceptable to God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been reviewing your responses to questions about marriage. I know what you've stated about polygamous marriages. If I may explain my situation, I want to know if this applies to me. I have children with a man who converted to Islam. He and I decided to marry,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24503,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-could-a-woman-in-an-adulterous-marriage-have-the-right-to-remarry-after-a-divorce\/","url_meta":{"origin":51262,"position":5},"title":"How could a woman in an adulterous marriage have the right to remarry after a divorce?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have read through your articles and thoroughly enjoyed them, and even taken a few sermons and re-worked them into sermons that I preached here. However, when I came across\u00a0an answer to a question you made concerning divorce and remarriage, I was a bit taken aback because of you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}